An ordinary facsimile apparatus scans the image to be transmitted by a scanner to take in the image information, and transmits the image, or receives the transmitted image, and prints or displays it.
Recently, a digital still camera is developed as an image input device into a personal computer, and various memory cards are used as means for storing the still images. A memory card recording the still image is inserted into the memory card input and output unit, and is read and processed, and the image data is taken into the personal computer.
If the image is processed by the personal computer by using the memory card, to send the processed image to a distant place, first the image is printed out, and sent by the facsimile apparatus. That is, the saved electronic data is printed out on paper as visible information, and is then converted into electronic data again, and the memory medium is not utilized effectively.
On the other hand, the present applicants propose to provide the facsimile apparatus with a memory card input and output unit, load it with a memory card, and transmit the stored data directly from the card. This facsimile apparatus upgrades the function of the facsimile apparatus outstandingly, and expands the possibility of the facsimile apparatus.
The existing facsimile apparatus, however, is designed only to read the image printed on the original document by means of a scanner, and transmit it, and cannot transmit the image taken by a digital camera and stored in the memory card loaded in the memory card input and output unit. The reason is that the image data taken by the digital camera and stored in the memory card and the image data transmitted and received by the facsimile apparatus are different in the compression format of image data. The former is the data format for digital image processing by the personal computer, and the latter is the data format for transmission and reception by the facsimile apparatus, and the both formats have been standardized and developed separately, and are hence different. In the latter case, in particular, the data format differs between the monochromatic image and color image, and the monochromatic image data format is also divided into plural types, and data format mismatching occurs everywhere.
Therefore, if the destination side facsimile apparatus is a monochromatic facsimile apparatus, the color image stored in the memory card cannot be transmitted because the data format is mismatched in double senses of meaning, and therefore the image is once printed out as monochromatic image, and it is transmitted by the facsimile apparatus. As a result, the electronic data is meaningless.
Accordingly, by filling in the gap of these data formats, it has been requested to develop a facsimile apparatus capable of automatically converting the data format of the color image data stored in the memory card, if the destination side is a monochromatic facsimile apparatus, and transmitting as if there were no mismatching in data formats.